India logged 6.7 percent growth in fiscal 2009

New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) India registered an impressive 6.7 percent growth in fiscal 2008-09, despite the deepest economic crisis facing the global economy in six decades, official data showed Friday. Albeit lower than the 9 percent growth in gross domestic product (GDP) registered in 2007-08, the expansion in the current fiscal has been on the upper side of between 6-7 percent that was predicted by the government in the wake of the global slowdown.

“This shows resilience of the Indian economy against the background of global recession during the later part of last year,” said the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

“With the reversal of the contractionary monetary policy and fiscal stimulus measures, the growth rate should now show improvement in the current fiscal,” said chamber president Harsh Pati Singhania.

As per statistics released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the higher-than-expected growth came about despite the farm sector logging a mere 1.6 percent growth and manufacturing output expanding by just 2.4 percent.

The main reason why the overall growth got a boost was the 13 percent jump in the expansion of community services, 9 percent in transport and communications sectors, and 7.8 percent in financial and other services sector.

Expansion in construction activities was also higher than the overall growth at 7 percent. This apart, mining output was up 3.6 percent and electricity and fuel production grew by 3 percent, the fresh data showed.

The major reason for the slippage, therefore, was due to the sharp slide in both industrial and agricultural growth, which fell from 8.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, in 2007-08.

“While the policy stimulus should take care and give a boost to manufacturing sector, the monsoon pattern this year will very critically determine the farm economy,” said Singhania.